Kansas University student Haley Drown died of a rare but noncontagious type of bacterial meningitis, health officials confirmed Tuesday.

Drown, a 19-year-old Leawood resident who just finished her freshman year at KU, died Sunday from pneumococcal meningitis, according to the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment.

Drown reported symptoms of a severe sinus infection prior to going to a Kansas City area hospital over the weekend, and the infection spread, according to media reports.

Healthy people can carry the bacteria that cause meningitis in their nose or throat without getting sick, according to the CDC. Rarely, these bacteria can invade the body and cause disease.

“Most bacteria that cause meningitis are harmless to those who carry it,” James Joerke, the health department’s deputy director, said in a statement. “However, in a susceptible person, these bacteria can cause a wide range of diseases, from bronchitis to ear and sinus infections to life-threatening pneumonia, meningitis, and, less frequently, bacteria in the blood.”

Drown was a business major, a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority and lived in Corbin Hall last year, according to KU.

KU is mourning her death, Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said in a statement Tuesday.

“On behalf of the entire University of Kansas community, I offer our most sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Haley Drown,” Gray-Little said. “Our hearts go out to them as they mourn the loss of this young, promising life.” 

Meningitis is an infection of the fluid around the spinal cord and brain. Symptoms include high fever, headache, stiff neck and, in severe cases, confusion and seizures.

Joerke said close contacts of someone with pneumococcal meningitis do not need preventive antibiotics and that there is no public health threat, because the bacteria is not spread by casual contact. He said there is less than one case of pneumococcal meningitis per 100,000 people each year.

A different type of bacterial meningitis — the more contagious meningococcal form, or meningitis B — nearly killed KU student and scholarship hall resident Andy Marso in 2004.

Since 2005, KU has required students in campus housing to receive a meningococcal vaccine, said Douglas Dechairo, director and chief of staff for KU’s Watkins Health Services.

The CDC recommends the meningococcal vaccine for college students and military members living in close quarters. However, doctors said in media reports that the vaccine would not have prevented the type of meningitis that overtook Drown.